2009年8月3日月曜日

How Japanese see Koreans #2

In early '70s, there was a sudden outbreak of..,well, outbreak of the popularity of Chinese singers in JapanLand.First, a very sexy & soulful Tiwanese singer called Ou Yang Fei Fei,then, a cute young idol singer from Hong Kong called Agnes Chan.As both of them became very popular,subsequently Japanese record companies and agencies sent lots of scoutmen to Taiwan and Hong Kong to hail new cuties and beauties.

It was not only singers, in '70s there was a young Chinese-Japanese actress called Bunjak Hung was also popular.

Then, in '79, this song by Judy Ongg became a phenomenal hit.She was born in Taiwan, moved to Japan when she was two,and already a child star during '60s.

In mid '80 Teresa Teng became a super star, not only in Japan but also all over Asia,though she originally came to Japan in '73 from Taiwan, and had a few hits during '70.Then she was deported in '79 as she used a fake passportand could not get in Japan till '84.But after that, just hit after hit after hit.

Japanese considered these Chienes entertainers as exotic beauties.And the interesting thing was that no Korean entertainer could acomplish a success like theseas a Korean till a recent time.Since late '70s a few Korean Enka(traditional style Japanese popular ballds) singers had achieved some sucess in Japan.However, still at that time, I could hardly imagine the day would come that Japanse young kids idolize young Korean pop stars like they do now.

Though even in '70s, there were some successful Korean-Japanese entertainters.But they had to use Japanese names and hide their identitieslike Jewish entertainters do in U.S.Interestingly enough Japanese had prejudices toward both Chinese and Koreans,then how come only Chinese were accepted but Koreans were not?Well, Chinese were Novelties for Japanese as not many of them lived in Japan.On the other hand, Korean-Japanese could be threats for Japaneseas a significant number of them were living in Japan.The same logic can work in U.S. as well."One Black family in a White neighborhood is a noveltybut two of them are the begining of a Ghetto."

Yes, in a way, Chinese entertainers were accepted as they are.However, think about it, they were all females because womens were/are less threatening for the majority.

Here is a very popular Korean-Japanese singer, Akiko Wada.She has been singing since early '70sand considered a Japanese Soul singerthough she did not reveal her identity till a recent time.

自己紹介

I love animals, especially cats and Shiba inus. I love flowers too. Not having much reason to live, this depressive solitary nerd is too lazy to die. I think I would become a ghost and keep looking for my cats after my death.